Thread: Little to cheer for Bears

Pretty good breakdown by Pompei and I think his critique was generally fair and accurate.

I would add that his grading could have been a bit more generous to the defense. I thought they played a damn good game, especially with a less than 100% Urlacher. Any time you hold Rodgers & Co to only 16 offensive points in their home stadium your defense is doing an awfully lot of positive things. This was the first time I can remember when our front 4 really got to AR and that plus 2 (should have been 3) takeaways kept us in the game well into the 2nd hald despite an off night on STs and a horrible one on O.

Pompei gave out only player grades but omitted another key failure--coaching. Whether it was preparation, game planning, play calling, or "on the fly" adjustments, the coaching staff deserves the same "1" grade as he fairly gave to the OL, WRs, and Cutler. No matter how well your defense plays it is pretty unrealistic to expect to win when all 4 of those elements fail so miserably. It was pretty much a repeat performance of last year's game 2 in New Orleans and the 2010 NFC Championship game.

Criticisms
We have pretty much beat that to death and Pompei laid it out pretty damn well. One thing he didn't mention was Evan Rodriguez. I thought ERod would have been a good weapon to use short over-the-middle when it was obvious that our WRs were covered and the OL was struggling with the blitz. He's pretty quick and has bulk. Could have got us some 10 yard pickups easily but that of course required the coaching staff to amend their play calling on the fly which for some crazy reason we just don't seem to be able to do like so many other teams do seamlessly.

How the Bears staff "didn't pay enough attention" to Clay Matthews is utterly inexplicable. He was the one player besides Rodgers who could pretty much beat us single-handedly and he was basically allowed to do it. Pompei makes good points about CM v Webb. Not making excuses for Webb sucking but Matthews can beat up OTs far more accomplished and leaving Webb on him alone 11 times was just ridiculous. Spaeth or KDavis should have been glued to Webb's left hip on every pass play with ERod or a RB picking up any other blitzers from the interior. It really pisses me off that Tice left Webb on an island so many times when he clearly should have known better.

One more thing...Jay, please stop throwing off your back foot unless you're chucking it away. Bad things happen consistently otherwise. It's a bad habit and mechanical breakdown you really should have put in the past by now. Enough said.

Kudos
Enough bad stuff, no onto some good stuff in blue.

I thought the safeties played a fine game. Nothing spectacular but decent. I can't find too much fault for allowing Rodgers one TD pass all night.

Jennings has really stepped up big time so far this year. It is nice to hear the TC hype about him actually translate into fruition. Peanut was good as he usually is too despite playing at less than 100%. The CB situation and depth has been a pleasant surprise so far this year.

Urlacher is clearly not yet himself but he looked much better and more rangy to me than in week 1. Haven't heard anything bad about his knee so I hope he is getting his sea-legs back underneath him and "playing himself into shape" after missing nearly all of the PS. The trend so far is positive and encouraging. We are going to need him to continue the climb and I'm encouraged that the needle seems to be moving in the right direction.

Briggs played a very good game. He needs to hang on to easy picks (remember that one he dropped last year in Philly too?) but otherwise he's playing well.

The DL really appears to be coming together and the shuffle of moving Pep or Izzy inside with Shea on the end for 3rd & pass downs has helped generate pressure that often wasn't there last year. Melton seems to be coming on strong (contract year of course). Shea is still a liability in run D but he's starting to get to the passer. Collins should be ready to add into the mix too. Like to see pressure up the middle from Paea but all in all it looks like the DL is going to be much improved from last year. Looking ahead a little...we are gonna need these guys to get to Romo and Stafford. Those are two other QBs who like Cutler tend to throw a lot of picks when pressured consistently. Very encouraged here that we are finally going to be getting to the passer with more than just Peppers beating double teams.

Optimistic look ahead
Learn from it (especially the part about helping Webb A LOT against DeMarcus Ware) but shake off this shitty loss. Gotta beat the Rams and we should do so handily at home, even w/o Forte. I'm hoping that he can be back by October 1 against Dallas since there's been no word on Forte being definitely sidelined for an extended period. It will be a tough but winnable game as long as we DON'T LET WARE BEAT US ALL BY HIMSELF. Hopefully, Tice has learned a thing or two now about that so that something else positive comes out of the ashes of week 2 in Lambeau.

I gotta believe that CWilliams is going to be replacing Spencer at LG by week 4 at the latest. That's an upgrade for sure.

Detroit has SF on the road Sunday night. Unless Stafford plays a helluva lot better than he did last week, that is going to be an "L" for them. Then they travel to Tennessee which is no gimme. Green Bay travels to Seattle next week and it is not unrealistic to think they could lose there. Seahawks have a good defense and that stadium is tough to play in as a road team...loud, very loud. Could Flynn play and eeke out a home field win against his old team? Possible. Even if it doesn't happen, week 3 should end with a 2-1 record for three teams in the NFC North.

I'm choosing to stay positive after being pissed off by Thursday's poor effort.

Originally Posted by Shark86x

• In fact, keeping so many men in might have been a problem as it limited the potential receivers for quarterback Jay Cutler.

100% on the dot. Max protect = minimal options. If you only send 2 or 3 guys downfield, who can possibly get open with 6 guys in coverage? Forget the max protect, send every eligible body. They can't cover everybody, somebody will be open. Just find him quick and let it rip.

I agree with ya Shark. The best time to use max protect is in running situations with play action. That way the LBs & SS are closer to the LOS which opens up the field a bit. Hopefully we'll see some of that in the coming weeks & hit some big plays.

Originally Posted by MPBears68

Pretty good breakdown by Pompei and I think his critique was generally fair and accurate.

I would add that his grading could have been a bit more generous to the defense. I thought they played a damn good game, especially with a less than 100% Urlacher. Any time you hold Rodgers & Co to only 16 offensive points in their home stadium your defense is doing an awfully lot of positive things. This was the first time I can remember when our front 4 really got to AR and that plus 2 (should have been 3) takeaways kept us in the game well into the 2nd hald despite an off night on STs and a horrible one on O.

Pompei gave out only player grades but omitted another key failure--coaching. Whether it was preparation, game planning, play calling, or "on the fly" adjustments, the coaching staff deserves the same "1" grade as he fairly gave to the OL, WRs, and Cutler. No matter how well your defense plays it is pretty unrealistic to expect to win when all 4 of those elements fail so miserably. It was pretty much a repeat performance of last year's game 2 in New Orleans and the 2010 NFC Championship game.

Criticisms
We have pretty much beat that to death and Pompei laid it out pretty damn well. One thing he didn't mention was Evan Rodriguez. I thought ERod would have been a good weapon to use short over-the-middle when it was obvious that our WRs were covered and the OL was struggling with the blitz. He's pretty quick and has bulk. Could have got us some 10 yard pickups easily but that of course required the coaching staff to amend their play calling on the fly which for some crazy reason we just don't seem to be able to do like so many other teams do seamlessly.

How the Bears staff "didn't pay enough attention" to Clay Matthews is utterly inexplicable. He was the one player besides Rodgers who could pretty much beat us single-handedly and he was basically allowed to do it. Pompei makes good points about CM v Webb. Not making excuses for Webb sucking but Matthews can beat up OTs far more accomplished and leaving Webb on him alone 11 times was just ridiculous. Spaeth or KDavis should have been glued to Webb's left hip on every pass play with ERod or a RB picking up any other blitzers from the interior. It really pisses me off that Tice left Webb on an island so many times when he clearly should have known better.

One more thing...Jay, please stop throwing off your back foot unless you're chucking it away. Bad things happen consistently otherwise. It's a bad habit and mechanical breakdown you really should have put in the past by now. Enough said.

Kudos
Enough bad stuff, no onto some good stuff in blue.

I thought the safeties played a fine game. Nothing spectacular but decent. I can't find too much fault for allowing Rodgers one TD pass all night.

Jennings has really stepped up big time so far this year. It is nice to hear the TC hype about him actually translate into fruition. Peanut was good as he usually is too despite playing at less than 100%. The CB situation and depth has been a pleasant surprise so far this year.

Urlacher is clearly not yet himself but he looked much better and more rangy to me than in week 1. Haven't heard anything bad about his knee so I hope he is getting his sea-legs back underneath him and "playing himself into shape" after missing nearly all of the PS. The trend so far is positive and encouraging. We are going to need him to continue the climb and I'm encouraged that the needle seems to be moving in the right direction.

Briggs played a very good game. He needs to hang on to easy picks (remember that one he dropped last year in Philly too?) but otherwise he's playing well.

The DL really appears to be coming together and the shuffle of moving Pep or Izzy inside with Shea on the end for 3rd & pass downs has helped generate pressure that often wasn't there last year. Melton seems to be coming on strong (contract year of course). Shea is still a liability in run D but he's starting to get to the passer. Collins should be ready to add into the mix too. Like to see pressure up the middle from Paea but all in all it looks like the DL is going to be much improved from last year. Looking ahead a little...we are gonna need these guys to get to Romo and Stafford. Those are two other QBs who like Cutler tend to throw a lot of picks when pressured consistently. Very encouraged here that we are finally going to be getting to the passer with more than just Peppers beating double teams.

Optimistic look ahead
Learn from it (especially the part about helping Webb A LOT against DeMarcus Ware) but shake off this shitty loss. Gotta beat the Rams and we should do so handily at home, even w/o Forte. I'm hoping that he can be back by October 1 against Dallas since there's been no word on Forte being definitely sidelined for an extended period. It will be a tough but winnable game as long as we DON'T LET WARE BEAT US ALL BY HIMSELF. Hopefully, Tice has learned a thing or two now about that so that something else positive comes out of the ashes of week 2 in Lambeau.

I gotta believe that CWilliams is going to be replacing Spencer at LG by week 4 at the latest. That's an upgrade for sure.

Detroit has SF on the road Sunday night. Unless Stafford plays a helluva lot better than he did last week, that is going to be an "L" for them. Then they travel to Tennessee which is no gimme. Green Bay travels to Seattle next week and it is not unrealistic to think they could lose there. Seahawks have a good defense and that stadium is tough to play in as a road team...loud, very loud. Could Flynn play and eeke out a home field win against his old team? Possible. Even if it doesn't happen, week 3 should end with a 2-1 record for three teams in the NFC North.

I'm choosing to stay positive after being pissed off by Thursday's poor effort.

I would give the coaching staff a "0" but I think "1" is his lowest rating. I just looked back in the OP & he starts at "0" so I gotta go "0".

Tice said earlier in the week that they weren't going to "gameplan or do anything different" to help block Matthews. I find that ridiculous as well MP, and why we can't seem to adjust to our opponents scheme during the game is a mystery to us all. On around the 4th time we had the ball we seemed to figure out that the short pass to Forte was open but we didn't use it enough. Then when he got hurt & we quit doing that alltogether. Bush can run a swing or crossing route. Allen is a very good receiver out of the backfield. He can't block Matthews so send him out for a quick crossing route. He fast & can make people miss. I just don't get it. I thought Martz was gone.

Originally Posted by MPBears68

Classic triumph of hope over experience IMHO. I can't believe that Tice truly THINKS that. He talked about his concerns pretty openly in the PS and the recent flop only reinforces the issue. I wonder if he somehow just HOPES for too much even though he knows better. I dunno wtf goes on in Tice's head...

Just get CWill back in there at LG, bench Spencer's useless ass, and plan on keeping a TE glued to Webb's left hip permantly against premier speed rushers. Establish the run to set up the (deeper) pass, not the other way around. It's not that complicated, Mike. Give your QB a fighting chance.

You're spot on my friend. My feeling is Tice knows this but doesn't want to realize it because it limits this offense. Webb had decent last week against a backup DE so Tice thought/hoped that Webb could actually be a good LT. Makes ya wonder, doesn't it? I agree that Chris Williams should be our LG. Maybe Jonathon Scott will be given a chance. The other option would be Edwin Williams at LG & Chris Williams at LT. Tice needs to realize the bottom line is that "you play to win the game!" period!